During minimally invasive surgeries, surgical instruments such as ablation probes, trocars, cannulas, and optical medical devices, including endoscopes, cystoscopes, arthroscopes, laparoscopes, etc., are inserted through small incisions or portals in a patient's body or body cavity and manipulated to perform surgical procedures within the patient.
Minimally invasive surgical procedures are safer than open surgery and result in quicker patient recovery, shorter hospital stays, and lower health care costs. Accordingly, minimizing invasiveness continues to be of importance, and there is a continuing need for devices and methods that achieve this objective.
One area that has benefited from minimally invasive surgical techniques is arthroscopic surgery. Arthroscopic surgery such as shoulder surgery has evolved over the last several years from being an open surgical procedure to an arthroscopic surgical procedure. This evolution is the result of technological advances in equipment, instruments and implants.
Radio frequency ablation devices are often used during arthroscopic surgical procedures such as arthroscopic shoulder surgery. Radio frequency ablation is used, among other applications, to smooth the surface as well as to seal fissures in the cartilage found in joints, articular cartilage. The goal of such treatment is to provide mechanical stability while preventing the expansion of degenerative lesions within the cartilage matrix. Use of thermal energy on articular cartilage is not without risk. Exposure of mature cartilage cells, chondrocytes, to uncontrolled heat can cause cell death and alter the mechanical properties of its surrounding matrix.
Joints, such as shoulders and knees, have joint space with small amounts of fluid volume available within the surgical site. When radio frequency ablation probes are used in joints with small joint space, the surrounding fluid in the joint can quickly heat up as the fluid acts as a heat sink. Temperatures exceeding 113° F. in surrounding non-targeted tissue can have adverse effects on the surgical site, surrounding tissue and the patient. Temperatures above 113° F. can cause cartilage tissue death rapidly. Presently, fluid temperatures within arthroscopic surgical sites are not specifically monitored during surgery and steps are not taken to maintain the fluid temperatures at safe levels, such as levels between 97° F. and 108° F., within the surgical site during ablation. Systems and methods are needed to monitor and control the temperature within a surgical site during arthroscopic surgical procedures in order to prevent tissue damage.